Jay Leno was rushed to hospital after a worrying accident in November (Picture: AP)
You won’t find Jay Leno ‘whining and complaining’, despite nearly losing his life in two separate near-fatal accidents.
The 73-year-old was rushed to hospital last November with serious burns following a freak accident while he was working on a vintage car.
Shortly after recovering, he was ‘clotheslined’ during a motorcycle ride in January, resulting in broken ribs and a broken collarbone.
Although he has had a tough few months, the former Tonight Show host insisted that his recovery has gone very well so far, and that he’s ‘doing good’.
‘It’s fine! I’m fine,’ he said in a new interview. ‘Look, when you’re in my position, when you’re any kind of celebrity, you’re luckier than most people.
‘So, when something bad happens to you, you can’t whine and complain about it because bad things happen to people every day – either they get burned or they get cut – and they don’t have the financial wherewithal I did.’
Just a few weeks later, he had a concerning accident on his motorbike (Picture: Getty)
‘So I just make jokes,’ he added to PageSix, quipping that ‘people love to see rich people catch on fire.
‘Plus, it’s Hollywood. As long as you look okay, you’re okay. Nobody really cares how you feel.’
Jay was met with concern at the end of last year when he got covered in petrol in a freak accident, while fixing one of his cars.
A spark appeared to trigger an explosion, setting him on fire – before a quick-thinking friend jumped to his rescue.
‘I was under the car maybe 10 seconds before [friend] Dave pulled me out,’ he told People Magazine of the ordeal. ‘Any longer than that I could have lost an eye.
The star insisted that he wouldn’t be ‘whining and complaining’ about his health (Picture: AFP)
‘I’m not a panicky guy. But I knew if I breathed in, I could scorch my lungs.
‘It felt exactly like my face was on fire. Maybe like the most intense sunburn you’ve ever had.’
Jay then spent two weeks in a specialist burns unit at a nearby hospital, where he underwent a series of skin graft operations – before getting straight back to work.
However, that wasn’t the end of his health issues, as he was knocked off his motorbike just a few weeks later, suffering a broken collarbone, two broken ribs and two cracked kneecaps in the accident.
‘I just make jokes.’
